The Middlebury men's swimming and diving team kicked off 2024 with a home meet against Bowdoin, edging the Polar Bears 145-133 on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers claimed six victories in the meet with four in the pool and swept both diving boards.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Luke McNamara tallied the first win of the afternoon, leading the field to the wall in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:02.98), winning by nearly seven seconds. A few events later, he was the only swimmer to go under the 2:00 mark with a winning time of 1:57.14 in the 200 butterfly. Will Sonne was second in the event (2:00.46)
• Samuel Hughes claimed a win in the 200 back with a time of 1:53.19, while he touched the wall second in the 100 back (51.74).
• Riley Griffis won the 500 free with a clocking of 4:42.48, while Sonne notched another runner-up effort with a time of 4:55.73.
• During the diving events, Ran Brown grabbed the titles on both boards. He won the 1-meter title scoring 251.03 points, and took the 3-meter crown, accumulating 229.28 points. 
• Owen White was the runner-up in the 1-meter board (236.78 points), while Liam Smith finished second in the 3-meter event (211.05 points.) 
• Other runner-up showings in the swimming events were tallied by Paul Shen in the 100 breaststroke (59.90), Andrew Dou during the 100 fly (52.26) and Hugh Hutchinson in the 200 back (2:00.52).
• The 200 medley relay quartet of Jack Undercofler, Shen, Griffis and Hughes touched the wall with a runner-up time of 1:35.02.
• In the meet's final event, the 200 free relay team consisting of Jason Chiappinelli, Griffis, Dou and Christopher Pedersen was second in 1:26.67.

Middlebury has a week off from competition before hosting Colby on Saturday and Bates next Sunday for the program's Senior Day.